Takes Like Coffee: Eliud Kipchoge drives an Isuzu

Let me get you started with a #take. The Cleveland Indians winning streak is not that impressive. Talk to me when they win 112 times consecutively. That’s what Edwin Moses was able to do over a span of about 10 years. OK, I know that’s impossible in baseball. I was going to try and rundown what some of the most impressive track streaks exists but no one can hold a candle to Moses’ 107 consecutive finals and 15 prelims won from 1977 to 1987. (Sidenote: Romania’s Iolanda Balas winning 180 straight high jump contests is pretty baller too.)

Back to some track headlines. I’ll admit that with other work commitments, taping a podcast, working up a mailbag and coordinating some of the content on this site, I may have bitten off more than I can chew with these headline roundups. We’re gonna move them to Tuesdays and Thursday. I hope you can forgive me.

If there’s any story that you think should make the next edition of TLC, then shoot me message. You can reach me at: [email protected] or tweet at me @ChrisChavez.

Your strange headline of the day:

For Eliud Kipchoge, Teslas are only for sub-two hour marathon pacing. He’s driving Isuzu cars while rolling through Kenya, according to one of those strange reports from there. The Berlin Marathon is sponsored by BMW so if he wins and gets a free car out of it, I’d be more than happy to take that off his hands.

Also, Isuzu, we took care of your first ad for you. Our Venmo is @citiusmag, if you want to send over any cash.

This was the biggest news of the day regarding Olympic sports. We’re 11 years away from the Summer Olympics returning to the United States for the first time since the Atlanta 1996. I’ll go out on a limb and submit my early prediction for the U.S. track medal haul in 2028…I’ll go with 28 medals and I have nothing to back that up right now. Do I think any Rio 2016 U.S. track Olympian will be on the 2028 team? Let’s consider the fact that Sidney McLaughlin was the youngest last year at 17 and she would be 29 in LA. The U.S. 400 meter hurdles is only getting deeper so I will say NO.

There’s some harrowing tidbits in there. This one on what the future in the battle against doping may hold.

“I’m reading that at the genetic level, they have figured out how human beings can just, at birth, naturally create more erythropoietin. They are figuring out how human beings can naturally have their bodies continue to make growth hormones. The list goes on and on and on. There’s a lab out of Japan that just figured out how to synthesize every single anabolic steroid on earth, basically at the genetic level that’s undetectable. I don’t understand the science of it, but the question is not a question of clean sport, it’s a question of science. And unless we believe that human beings are stopping evolving — that there isn’t going to be an iPhone 8, and an iPhone 9, and an iPhone 10 — outside of the moral and ethical questions regarding clean sport, the answer on a very fundamental level, and just flat out scientific level, is that it’s never going to work.”

Alexi Pappas didn’t run at this summer’s world championships and mentions some hamstring issues. Some solid advice her on dealing with injuries and not rushing the comeback. Exclusive here: If you’re reading this, you have just learned that Alexi Pappas will be the next guest on The Price of A Mile with Woody Kincaid. She’s the first non-Bowerman guest and recently sat down to chat with Woody while he was training in Mammoth Lakes. So smash the subscribe button!

Chris Chavez

Citius Mag founder and writer for Sports Illustrated. Writing about people running on circles for five years. Covered the 2016 Olympics in Rio for SI. Previously at ESPN, Sporting News and Flotrack. Former high school sprinter turned four-time marathoner. Once went head-to-head with Joey Fatone in a half-marathon and won.